The Life of an Amorous Woman
Two young men wandering in the hills north of Kyoto come on a hermitage where an old woman agrees to account for herself, and she starts at eleven, an attendant in a court household. From there she goes down by grades — dancing girl, ranked courtesan of Shimabara, a lord's concubine hired to produce an heir, temple mistress, seamstress, bathhouse attendant, streetwalker at the edge of the city — losing each place for much the same reason. Saikaku wrote it as the counterpart to his amorous man, and it is exact about what every rank cost and what it paid.
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Lineage
- companion to ↑ The Life of an Amorous Man
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Closest analogues
- 53% · 13 shared
- 53% · 12 shared
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- 48% · 12 shared